Song Yang and Xia Jing turned around quickly, rushed out of the hut and came to the main road.
The next second, shrill screams suddenly erupted around the town!
The howling sound that echoed through the night came from the washing river that surrounded the town.
Amidst the dragon-like roar, water curtains suddenly rose from all directions of the town.
The waters seemed to have souls, twisting and changing in the night sky, moaning and wailing.
They poured towards the center of the town with a roar, gathered together in mid-air, and turned into a huge, transparent Western dragon!
The dragon twisted its neck, roared to the sky, and swooped down low over the main road in the center of the town!
The huge wings and the air currents brought by the flight smashed and destroyed all the houses on both sides!
The dragon rushed to the front of the main road and swallowed all the ghosts in one gulp.
These ghosts are probably all its baits.
Whenever a human steps into this town, the demon will quietly release bait, attempting to recreate the scene of the annihilation of all the townspeople and capture the souls of all the players in one net.
After being forcibly summoned from his true form, he had to swallow the ghosts back to replenish his energy in preparation for battle.
At this moment, its body turned from water into flesh and blood, covered with a layer of skin covered with dragon scales.
This layer of skin was as red as blood, and countless human faces emerged from beneath it, all of them with expressions of shouting and fear!
The giant dragon circled in the air, aimed at Song Yang and Xia Jing, and swooped down towards them.
The two men faced the strong wind and took out weapons from the space bag.
This copy has reached its final moment.
*
The deserted town that had been silent for several years had completely turned into ruins.
The ghost disappeared, the house collapsed, Feng Shi, Bian Ya, Jia Qing and Zheng Shu ran out and joined the battle with Song Yang and Xia Jing.
The giant dragon danced and struggled back and forth in the night.
The roars were like thunder, enough to shatter the entire sky.
More than twenty minutes later.
With a loud "bang", the giant dragon finally fell slowly to the ground, motionless.
Several people were panting, with blood splattered all over their bodies, and looked in a miserable state.
Zheng Shu came back to his senses from the fierce battle, jumped up, and said excitedly: "Solved? We have already dealt with the main monster? Oh, I seem to have sensed an option to exit the dungeon in my mind!"
Jia Qing was shocked and said, "Brother Yang, so how was this demon summoned?"
Song Yang briefly explained the entire chain of clues, and the group suddenly understood.
I have to say that the four-star copy is worthy of being a four-star copy. The clues in it are very complicated. If you don't think quickly enough, you will die accidentally.
Fortunately, the remaining six of them all survived.
Jia Qing quickly asked, "Then Brother Feng and Brother Bian should be okay, right?"
Bian Ya opened his clothes that had turned into strips of cloth.
There was a bulge on the side of his left hip, like a huge tumor. If you looked closely, you could see that the bulge was still moving slightly.
Jia Qing was so frightened that he choked.
Bianya gave him a funny look and said calmly, "The devil is dead, but Elizabeth's curse still exists."
Feng Shi nodded.
His bat was probably born on the shoulder blade behind his back, and he could now clearly feel a swelling and pain there.
The main monster in this copy has been eliminated, but the curse cannot be lifted, so he and Bian Ya still need to exit the copy as soon as possible, otherwise if the bats continue to grow, their lives will still be in danger.
Song Yang turned around to look at Xia Jing and asked in a low voice: "Do you want to take this main monster back?"
"Yes," Xia Jing had already taken out the space bag and chuckled, "Special moments require more supplies, don't they?"
He suddenly thought of something, shook the space bag towards Bian Ya and Zheng Shu, and asked in a friendly tone, "Do you want to share?"
Zheng Shu was confused: "Share? Share what? Share this main monster?"
He was full of questions.
What can be done by dividing the main monster?
Bian Ya asked in surprise, "Is there any point in taking the monster's body parts now? Do you still want to enter the safe house?"
He shook his head and said, "I don't need it. You guys can take it. The fact that we were able to solve this dungeon is mainly due to the two of you. The monster props are also yours."
Since Bian Ya said so, Xia Jing was no longer polite.
Song Yang and he cut the giant dragon into pieces and put them into several space bags as quickly as possible.
After finishing, they can prepare to exit the copy.
Since Zheng Shu, the newcomer, knew nothing about the current situation outside, Jia Qing said to him, "After you exit the dungeon, you will appear in a small room. Don't worry, that's called the login room. Push open the door and you will see the game hall of Smiley City."
"Once you get to the game hall, find a very narrow corridor. We'll be waiting for you at the entrance of that corridor."
Zheng Shu listened seriously and nodded repeatedly.
On the side, the other four remained silent.
This time they managed to pass a four-star dungeon without any major problems, but they had been in it for nearly three days, and they didn't know how many hours had passed in the game hall outside.
What about those four-star copies and those players?
Feng Shi said: "After we get out, Xia Jing——"
Xia Jing is the one in the most special and dangerous situation among them.
Song Yang held Xia Jing's hand and whispered, "If you can still move freely later, bring Tuanzi and come to my personal space together?"
The safe house was about to fall apart, and Song Yang really didn't want Xia Jing to stay in that seemingly precarious place.
Xia Jing said, "After we leave, it's still a question whether you can still use your personal space."
Feng Shi was stunned.
Xia Jing said softly: "After we get out, whether we can have time to breathe is also a question."
Song Yang's eyes darkened.
"So," Xia Jing smiled casually, "Let's talk about everything after we get out."
On the other side, Jia Qing had already explained everything to Zheng Shu.
Zheng Shu said anxiously, "Why do I feel like the situation in the game hall is even more dangerous than in the dungeon..."
Jia Qing encouraged himself and Zheng Shu: "Don't think about it now. When we get out, we will fight back against the enemy with our own strength and block the water with our own earth!"
After Jia Qing finished speaking, the group fell silent again.
What will they encounter and what will be their ending?
All these unknown things are waiting for them ahead.
The six people exchanged glances with each other.
Song Yang held Xia Jing's hand tightly, and Xia Jing also held his hand in return.
Song Yang calmed himself down and said, "Let's exit the dungeon. We'll meet up right away when we get to the game lobby."
Everyone nodded and closed their eyes.
The mechanical system sound rang in Xia Jing's mind.
"Congratulations to player Xia Jing for passing the four-star dungeon 'How to Kill Him'!"
"The full score for a four-star dungeon is 80 points, and player Xia Jing scored 80 points in completing it!"
"Player Liu Mingyang has died, and his total points of 218 will be distributed; player Gao Sheng has died, and his total points of 97 will be distributed; player Huang Yu has died, and his total points of 65 will be distributed; player Fu Lan has died, and his total points of 123 will be distributed."
"The total points to be distributed are 503. Player Xia Jing received one-sixth, which is 83.8 points. After rounding, it is 84 points."
"Player Xia Jing's total score for clearing the game is 164 points, and the current accumulated score is 1310 points. Please keep up the good work!"
…
Song Yang regained consciousness in the login room.
The login room was well soundproofed, and he couldn't hear any noise coming from the game hall.
The quiet atmosphere can make his thoughts mobilize at the fastest speed.
He looked at the copy selection machine with uniform specifications, his eyes moved, and he spent two points to quickly check the current status of all copies.
The time displayed on the machine showed that six hours had passed since they logged into the copy.
During these six hours, the number of replicas has been reduced from 243 to 102.
Most of the remaining 102 copies are already in progress, with only a dozen not yet full.
Song Yang quickly determined that many players must have chosen to enter the dungeon early.
After all, the feeling of being forced into a dungeon is really unpleasant.
For many players, entering a four-star dungeon means death, but obviously, they finally decided that even if they die, they want to die happily.
After grasping the information and having a clear idea of what was going on, Song Yang turned around and pushed open the door of the login room.
At this moment, there were fewer people in the game hall, and most of them were lying on the ground.
Some of them had their eyes closed, while others were staring blankly with their eyes open. These were probably people who had just finished a dungeon. One could tell from their faces that they were mentally exhausted.
Song Yang cast a heavy gaze towards the large game screen in front.
The number of online players has also dropped to 742 from 2019 before they entered the dungeon.
More than 1,200 people are missing.
Song Yang turned his head without saying a word and looked to his side.
Jia Qing and Feng Shi have already walked out of the login room.
They noticed the rapidly decreasing number of players, and their expressions became a little heavy.
Although the light in Xia Jing's login room had also turned red, the door was still not opened.
Song Yang suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart and his face changed slightly.
He walked over and opened the door with a bang.
There was no one inside.
This login room is empty!
"Where is Brother Jing?" Jia Qing was surprised.
Feng Shi quickly looked around: "Could it be that he has come out?"
Song Yang said with a serious face: "It is impossible for him to leave without waiting for us at this time."
Xia Jing knew that he would be worried, and at this time, the young man would not play such a joke on him.
Song Yang immediately unfolded the holographic screen and sent a message to Xia Jing.
Then he rushed to the narrow corridor in the corner of Smiley City without hesitation.
With his heart beating wildly, Song Yang rushed to the end of the corridor as fast as he could. He prayed in his heart that the safe house was still there and Xia Jing was still here.
However, what awaited them at the end was the bare wall of a narrow corridor.
Song Yang slammed the wall hard and cursed softly.
Jia Qing gasped, "The safe house and Brother Jing are all gone?!"
The next second, Song Yang heard a "ding" sound in his ears.
He immediately turned on the holographic screen.
Xia Jing replied, "I was forcibly recalled to the safe house as soon as I exited the dungeon. Now the safe house has started drifting, and I can't control the direction, but there is no other danger for the time being, so don't worry."
Song Yang asked, "Which instance has the safe house drifted to now? Can you tell?"
Xia Jing: "Not in any dungeon, in the Chaos Zone of Smiley City."
Song Yang froze and clenched his teeth.
Xia Jing once mentioned to him the chaotic area of Smiley City.
It was a void, a dark place.
The flow of time in that place is constantly changing. Sometimes it is as slow as the flow of time in the dungeon, and sometimes it is faster than the flow of time in the game lobby.
Judging from the speed of their current conversation, the flow of time in the Chaos World is about the same as that in the game hall, but no one knows how it will change afterwards.
Once he arrived at that place, Xia Jing couldn't even push open the door of the safe house and walk out.
And when the safe house drifts out of control, it is unknown how long the house will stay in each place.
Xia Jing once said that the longest time he stayed in the chaotic zone was more than ten days.
How is this different from being locked up?
Song Yang didn't think it was a coincidence that Xia Jing was sent to the chaotic zone at this time. It must be the work of Smiley Face City.
After realizing this, his face became extremely ugly.
Song Yang's brain began to work rapidly.
Is there any way for him to reach Xia Jing immediately?
He quickly thought of—
Using his personal space as a medium, he and Xia Jing can meet!
Song Yang immediately took out the space key.
However, he soon discovered that no matter how he used his mind to drive it, the door to his personal space never appeared in front of him.
Everything was just as Xia Jing expected——
Players' personal spaces are also unavailable.
Song Yang grabbed a handful of hair, took a deep breath, and tried hard to calm himself down.
Calm down and think of other ways. There must be other ways...
As if he could sense his mood at the moment, Xia Jing quickly sent another message.
"Song Yang, do you remember the space bag I gave you?"
Song Yang paused.
"Don't lose your composure. You're still here for me, aren't you?"
When Song Yang heard this, his throat seemed to be blocked and his chest seemed to be suffocated.
He replied gloomily, "...I said I wouldn't leave you, but that's not what I meant."
Xia Jing seemed to be laughing: "Of course I know."
"But there's no other way now. Just make do with it, Doctor Song."
Thinking of the thing in the space bag that Xia Jing gave him, Song Yang closed his eyes.
He took out the space bag and held it tightly in his hand.
This thing connected him and Xia Jing, and at this critical moment, it was very important to Xia Jing...
Song Yang slowly exhaled and finally calmed down.
He asked, "Do you think it's still safe to communicate through the holographic screen?"
Xia Jing quickly gave him the answer: "It's not safe."
The holographic small screen is a product of Smiley City.
Granted, all the tools they use in this place now are products of Smiley City.
However, the holographic screen can transmit information. Once Smiley City is completely controlled and the channel of information exchange is mastered, then whatever they talk about will no longer be safe.
Xia Jing: "So, let's stop talking and wait for the situation to turn around."
Song Yang: "If something unexpected happens, remember to follow the plan you mentioned."
Xia Jing: "I know."
Xia Jing: "See you later, Song Yang."
Song Yang stared at these five words and did not move.
On the side, Feng Shi and Jia Qing looked at his expression and hesitated, "...What did Xia Jing say?"
Song Yang's Adam's apple rolled.
He closed the holographic screen and whispered, "He's fine for now. Let's go back to the game hall."
…
All players have discovered that their channels for exiting Smiley City have been closed.
It's 9:30 PM on a Monday night in the real world.
They were all trapped in this strange world.
Song Yang and his friends ran into Zheng Shu, who was confused and looking for the way, at the entrance of the corridor, and then they quickly contacted Bian Ya and Lu Chenfei.
——Lu Chenfei had just come out of a four-star dungeon.
A group of people stood in the game hall, looking up at the huge holographic screen in front of them.
The number of copies and players is constantly decreasing.
They watched with their own eyes as the numbers jumped again and again, as if they could see lives disappearing before their eyes.
Lu Chenfei cursed softly: "You bastard, don't let me catch you."
About an hour later, Fei Shengxiao and Li Mian appeared in front of them with two other girls.
Another hour passed before You Ye found them and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's really tough. You know, it seems like all the players in Smiley City have been forcibly recalled to Smiley City."
Lu Chenfei said with a sullen face, "That's why these four-star dungeons are filled up so quickly."
No one wants to be mentally tortured anymore.
They want a final decision.
Of course, there will always be a few people who are unwilling to enter the four-star copy.
They hoped that perhaps the four-star copy could be cleared before their time limit arrived, and then perhaps they could escape.
They are hoping for luck.
Some people despise them, while others choose to mind their own business and remain silent about the choices of others.
Anyway, no matter what, they seem to be coming to an end.
…
Four-star copies were closed one by one.
A large number of players died, and many players returned to the game lobby one after another.
The number of people in the game hall began to increase again.
Amidst the low voices and chaotic figures, they saw Chai Feng with a sinister expression, Wang Yueran who was in despair, Liu Yi who was sitting on the ground exhausted, Sha Yu and Yang Leliu who had always acted together, and Gu Chen and Gu Xing who were brother and sister with pale faces.
Seeing them, Sun Qianqian quickly ran towards them and said in a low voice, "Something very strange happened in the four-star dungeon I just entered. Shortly after the dungeon started, an uncle suddenly shouted into the air, "I'm willing to pay, let me out!" and then he simply disappeared on the spot.
Lu Chenfei asked, "And then he never showed up again?"
Sun Qianqian nodded.
Feng Shi frowned and said, "We've analyzed before that Smiley City might be connected to some powerful people. It seems they have already started some kind of experiment in the four-star dungeon."
Lu Chenfei sneered: "Then what are we players, guinea pigs?"
Song Yang didn't say anything.
He tightly grasped the space bag in his hand, silently folded his arms and stared at the large holographic screen in front of him.
Time passes by every second.
Another hour later, Tang Yi found them through the crowd.
He glanced at the group of people and asked doubtfully, "Is Brother Xia not here?"
No one can answer this question.
Those who knew the inside story remained silent.
…
Jia Qing said with a bitter face, "We won't be unable to leave Smiley City until tomorrow, right? What about school? Won't we become missing persons?"
You Ye pondered, "I wonder if those who died this time have returned to the real world. If they did, they'd have to die again. With so many deaths and disappearances happening in such a short period of time, it should have attracted some public attention."
"But if a few thousand people were put into the real world, they would be easily diluted by the huge population," Bian Ya said softly. "Whether they can attract attention is still unknown."
Feng Shi said, "There are special departments related to superpowers in the real world. I don't think they would be completely oblivious to this incident."
At this point, everyone fell silent again.
Even if the special department discovers the existence of Smiley City, can they save them from the dire situation?
Maybe it was all over before they actually took action.
Song Yang glanced at the time.
It was almost three in the morning on Tuesday.
The number of instances has been reduced to 11, and the number of online players has dropped to 219.
The changes in these two numbers also began to slow down.
Ten minutes later, the number of copies dropped to 10 and the number of players dropped to 209.
Jia Qing sniffed - this was probably another total annihilation copy.
Twenty minutes later, the number of copies dropped to 8 and the number of players dropped to 193.
The doors of the four login rooms were opened, and four players staggered out and sat on the ground, taking deep breaths and experiencing the feeling of being alive.
The two glaring numbers on the holographic screen began to crawl like a turtle.
Gradually, the game hall became quiet.
Everyone, either sitting or standing, waited silently for the two numbers to finally stop changing.
And that must be the moment when the number of copies becomes 0.
…
4:30 in the morning.
Song Yang involuntarily took a step forward.
Someone exclaimed, "It's gone to zero!"
Suddenly, the entire game hall became noisy.
"There are only 119 people left. Damn, how many people died!" someone cried.
"It's reset, so I don't need to enter the dungeon anymore?! Hahaha, I don't need to enter the dungeon anymore!" Someone jumped up.
"So what should we do next?" Someone looked around vigilantly.
Before they knew it, Song Yang and his group quietly approached each other, back to back.
This is a tacit understanding.
Their intuition told them that what was to come might be the highlight.
Each of them focused on one direction, warily observing every slight change in the surroundings, holding their breath, waiting for the arrival of the unknown.
About five minutes later...
At a certain moment, everyone in the game hall felt as if they had been hit on the head!
With a buzzing sound——
Dull pain in the brain, violent shaking of the visual field, and the appearance of double images.
There was a buzzing in my ears, and for a moment I couldn't hear any other sound.
Some people couldn't even stand steadily and fell to the ground.
The game hall suddenly fell into chaos, and many people shouted in panic.
Song Yang steadied himself, clenched the space bag in his hand, and shouted to the others: "Are you all okay?!"
Lu Chenfei gritted his teeth and said, "I'm fine!"
Li Mian and Fei Shengxiao also shouted, "It's okay!"
Jia Qing shuddered and said, "What's going on? What happened?!"
Zheng Shu: "I feel dizzy and want to vomit——"
In this shaking vision, Song Yang quickly realized that something was wrong.
It's not that there's something wrong with their bodies, but that Smiley City itself is changing.
The shape of this entire huge space began to collapse, the lines began to distort, and the colors began to become weird.
There seemed to be a vortex above the game hall.
All the blocks of color and all the lines are twisted together, and they spin and flow into this vortex.
Even the players' bodies seemed to be sucked straight into the vortex!
"What on earth does Smiley City want to do?!"
"Is it going to kill all of us remaining players?!"
Many people subconsciously took out props from their space bags.
However, except for non-offensive props such as the human skin mask, the other monster props cannot be used in the game lobby.
As for swords and daggers, what use are these things at this moment?
They don't even know where the "enemy" is!
Song Yang asked Lu Chenfei and the others to hold each other to fix their relative positions.
They gritted their teeth and persevered.
This hellish distortion and vibration lasted for a full minute, and suddenly, the vortex above the game hall released everything again.
It was like in a tug-of-war game, they were about to be pulled over by the other side by brute force, but the other side suddenly loosened the rope at this moment!
At this moment, everyone fell to the ground due to this mysterious force!
The dizziness disappeared and the tinnitus disappeared.
The vision stopped shaking and everything became clear again.
The game hall seemed to have returned to its normal state, with all the colors, lines, and spaces returning to where they should be.
--wrong.
The moment Song Yang raised his head, he froze there.
Then, the entire game hall fell silent in an instant.
…
The large holographic screen in the front suddenly disappeared.
Instead, there is a deep corridor.
There was a light on every few steps on the ceiling of the corridor, and the abundant silver-white light made the area a little dazzling.
Lu Chenfei quickly stood up and asked cautiously, "What is that place?"
Feng Shi was surprised and asked, "Could this be the new territory transformed by those behind Smiley Face City?"
Song Yang said in a deep voice: "...Let's go and take a look."
They took the lead and attracted the attention of the other players.
The players looked at each other, and seemed a little hesitant to step into that mysterious place easily.
But perhaps because Song Yang and the others were leading the way, they quickly mustered up their courage and followed them carefully.
Song Yang took out the dagger and held it in his hand.
The moment he stepped into the corridor and the dazzling silver-white light showered down from above his head, he realized—
This corridor is not a physical entity at all, but an illusion.
The corridor floor and surrounding walls were all in a semi-virtual state.
Reach out and you can even reach through walls.
On both sides of this mysterious phantom corridor are cells separated by iron bars.
There is a person in each cell.
Everyone looked lifeless.
These people seemed to have not sensed the intrusion of Song Yang and his group at all. Those who were in a daze continued to do so, and those who were anxiously walking around in the cell continued to do so.
Their bodies are also in a semi-empty state.
"What on earth are these?" Jia Qing was terrified by the scene.
Nobody knows.
Everyone walked in the corridor in confusion.
They looked warily at the people in each cell.
There are young people, middle-aged people, and old people.
There are women and there are men.
"These people look very much like 'players,'" Bian Ya said softly, "but they are obviously not 'players' at this point in time."
These phantom "players" appeared here, as if Smiley City was playing a movie from the past.
Song Yang suddenly had a premonition in his heart.
He began to quicken his pace and his heartbeat also began to speed up.
As he walked, he glanced quickly to the left and right.
"Hey, Brother Yang, walk slower!" Jia Qing said tremblingly.
Song Yang walked about ten meters and suddenly stopped.
His gaze was fixed on the cell on the right.
There was only a simple bed in the empty cell.
A handsome young man in a white T-shirt and jeans was sitting on the edge of the bed.
His figure was also in a semi-virtual state.
The young man leaned back slightly, his hands resting on the bed behind him, his handsome chin slightly raised.
He looked at the ceiling thoughtfully, as if he was lost in thought.
The legs were crossed, and the toe of the right foot was shaking slightly.
Although he was in such a strange and depressing environment, the young man seemed to have no fear or anxiety at all.
He was sitting casually as if he was at home, humming some melody softly.
Until one moment, he seemed to feel something, stopped humming and lowered his head.
A pair of beautiful, pitch-black phoenix eyes, looking calmly straight ahead.
Song Yang clenched his hands.
He knew—
He knew that the young man before him was just a shadow of the past.
However, at this moment, Song Yang still felt that their eyes seemed to meet in the air.
Through this cold iron door.
Separated by an untouchable river of time.
Song Yang took a step forward and whispered, "Xia Xia."